Self-Destruction Some people do it with drugs or alcohol-others choose a frantic pace of living or the more conventional tools of suicide. Toney Lowder, brilliant young New York attorndy with a bright future in politics, found a very unusual way to destroy himself: confession. Once Lowder started talking, no one-not his loving wife, his wealthy mistress, his ambitious law partner, or the Mafia-could stop him. To the people whose fate rested in his hands it looked as though Tony Lowder was about to step into the spotlight and become a modern-day martyr. But what he had really started was the first step of a descent into hell.